6 Common Linkbuilding Misconceptions
This entry is part two of 6 wrong linkbuilding mindsets. These linkbuilding misconceptions are subtle and creep into the subconscious of most SEO practitioners. Avoiding them will be a big help to an SEO practitioner’s linkbuilding campaign.
“Every link matters”
Some webpages that are irrelevant to your topic – either vertically irrelevant, customer-base irrelevant, market-base irrelevant or whatnot, will have minimal effect on your site’s linkbuilding and is generally a waste of your time. Relevance is one of the most important factors when it comes to building links. Never forget that.
“Nofollow? What’s that?”
I know that only Google respects the effect of nofollow links, but still, Google holds a dominating amount of the search market. Yes, nofollow still passes on TrustRank but I would suggest that you invest more on links that are dofollow to hit two birds with one stone.
Nofollow links are nofollow for a purpose. If you want your page rank to grow, get dofollow links. If you want to rank in Google, get dofollow links.
“I’m willing to shell out for any kind of link”
All links have to be screened and studied. Not all links pass on good juice. Only links from good, quality and relevant sites are of value to you. And those links don’t come by easily. It takes hard work and humanity to acquire.
As a result, some SEO specialists throw all their budget down the drain on paid links and automated tools that won’t get them anywhere with their linkbuilding. Instead of doing all the hard work in contacting and building relationships with those websites, they want it done easy and so they try to buy their linkbuilding campaign away.
There are tools that build links and they cost cash. Most of these tools will just automatically build low quality links in junk websites that are not moderated at all. The result? Crap.
There is no shortcut. Linkbuilding is hard work. Deal with it.
“The end justifies the means”
Black hat methods will always be black hat. Sooner or later, black hat methods will be uncovered and those that aren’t quick enough to clean their acts up will get sandboxed. Ouch!
Right now Google’s getting better and better in finding out black hatters – so keep it clean.
These guys don’t play fair, don’t care about other people, don’t care about their own sites and don’t care about moral standards. I personally don’t like them. Their linkbuilding methods spread crap all over the web.
“I like this badass site, let’s link to it…”
Unlike your backlinks, your outgoing links are under your management and care. It is an on-site detail and so you are solely responsible for all your outgoing links. If you have an outgoing link to a bad neighborhood site such as an adult site or a banned/malicious website, you’ll definitely feel Google up your throat.
Meaning, you’ll get penalized. Meaning, use your common sense and don’t do it.
“No traffic? No problem”
One of the reasons why you should ask a backlink from a website is because of the traffic that it can provide you in doing so. If the site has no web traffic then the link will consequently not give you any as well. Traffic is important. It’s where the cash comes in. It’s where the virality of content comes in. It’s where your value as a website comes in.
Good sites to check traffic from is Alexa and Compete. And you’ll pretty much find out anyway by the number of comments (if it’s a blog) or threads (if it’s a forum).
Tips for Keeps: Keep an open mind when linkbuilding. Check if you’re entrapped in one of these linkbuilding misconceptions and try to change your campaign approach.
